Hong Kong - the hustle, the bustle

So, Hong Kong was mostly shopping and eating and walking and talking and going to the toilet. There were a lot of people on the streets. Like, a lot. As in, you couldn't walk a 50 metre street in 10 minutes. This was probably owing to the fact that we went the few days before Christmas, it was the weekend, and general Hong Kongness i.e. people walking around, but not actually buying stuff. It was pretty hot for "winter".

There was a highlight that was really, really awkward. Like playing-Backstreet-Boys-on-your-phone-in-the-elevator-when-a-complete-stranger-walks-in awkward. Which is exactly what happened. Hilarity abounds.

We went to Disneyland on Monday, which was the pretty funs (photos here). It was a bit small though. We finished walking around in about four hours. We went on this space ride thingo, the train, and went to see the Lion King show. We bought lotsa stuff. Which pretty much sums up our Hong Kong adventure.

We'll be travelling to Ha Er Bin (further north than Beijing) for seven days. A bit of negative 30 degrees. Until next time, ciao.

Christmas Message 2007 from The Andrew

Merry Christmas to all of y'all on this fine day. Hell, it's even a fine day in GZ. The first in a while, from what I've heard. I actually saw a blue sky today. I think it's cleared away now.

Anyway, I've spent the last 4 days in Hong Kong, shopping, walking, eating, shopping, shopping, eating, walking, talking, and shopping. Basically, I bought shoes (LeBron shoes, because I play basketball - don't ask), a Swatch, and other various items from Disneyland. I'll probably fill in the rest of the details in the next few days.

Have a great day, and I hope you had as much fun and happiness receiving presents as you did giving them to people (I can dream). Have a good one.

Of China, ENTER, and theft

ENTER shall be discussed later. And yes, there is Internet in China.

So I (and my family) caught the plane at 1 o'clock in the morning on the 15th (Melbourne time), dead tired and really tuckered out. Then I remembered how hard it was to sleep on the plane. So I half-slept for about...5 minutes. Then food was served. Which was what I needed right then, seeing as I wasn't hungry and in need of sleep. So I ate the food, because I wasn't hungry, then I half-slept for about 4 hours. Then I woke up. Inexplicably. So I played DS for a bit, went to the toilet played DS some more, realised that the backlight was probably waking everyone up, stopped playing DS. Half slept for about 2 more hours. Woke up with 2 hours to go on the flight. Alighted at Hong Kong at about 6:30 their time, if I remember correctly (in the morn). (Man, this is gonna be a huge post again. I just spent about 10 line talking about a plane trip).

So yeah, got to Hong Kong airport, and pretty much hopped straight on the bus to Guangzhou. Turned out that we picked the worst ever bus company. What they did was, they told us that it would be an almost seamless trip, with a "short" stop on the border. Then, what they actually did was drop us at the border, picked up other customers and left us stranded for about an hour. My parents went ballistic. Understandably, I thought. So then they decided to shove us all on the bus and go zooming off to Guangzhou.

The weather was pretty bad. Still is. It's winter here. Or supposed to be. It feels like the Aussie spring, plus smog, pollution and general filth. And people. Many, many people. So we bunkered down at my grandpa's old house. It's generally pretty good, except for the tiny stairs, and generally cold water. It's quieter than many houses in Guanzhou.

So the day after we arrived, we went places. Visited rellies. Went to dinner.

The next day, we went shopping and gaming with cousin and wife. Which sounds a bit daggy, until you factor in the fact they're 24. So we bought books, jeans, food, and went gaming. Sarah scored a Hello Kitty doll in a fit of rage (she threw a coin on one of those table things) and Michelle got a hair clip. I got an orange juice that I bought. And a good time.

The next day...more shopping. Bought lots of random stuff. Like really random. As in...golden mices. Go figure. After that, we went and had lunch. As you do at lunchtime. Then we went to do more shopping. Or walking. I tried on those new Converse mouse shoes, but they look dodgy on me. They're a bit thin and queer-looking. My sister got a black pair though. They look quite the awesomes.

Today, we had breakfast at uncle's, and then went shopping. Bought about 5 Levi's jackets for about the price of half a Levi's jacket in Australia. And a Lonsdale jacket. After that, we ventured to a supermarket, which was like walking into Box Hill with about 10 times as many people. It was pandemonium. And I've been informed by my cousin that it's like that every day of the week. After lunch with grandma, we chilled at cousin's place. Still am.

I've been wanting to take a whole pile of photos, but everyone in my family is afraid of thieves. So I guess I can't bust out the ol' digital camera.

The irony is killing me. I can't view my own blog from here.

ENTER was very 93.75. Still don't know anyone who did worse than me. Hope it gets me into Comarts.

My massive family, including cousins and various other hangers-on, and I are leaving for Hong Kong on Friday, so I probably won't blog til after that. That'll make all of you happy. See you after Honky Kongy.

Andrew on Speech Night, Valedictory Dinner, Post-Exam Boredom and Much Ado About Nothing

And so it was, with much eager anticipation, that I put down my pen at the conclusion of the Business Management exam. However, the expected euphoria didn't really happen. It was kind of a feeling of relief more than anything. But I won't go into all that. I think I went through that in my last post. I think I shall do my second SumCap in a year. But this time, of post-school, instead of in school. Enjoy.



The Saturday after exams (17th of November): Glorious vacuum cleaning, then coffee at Knox City with family. Was quite relaxing. Went shopping for a bit. Didn't buy anything. Found out that the new catchphrase from my mum was "Buy it in Hong Kong, it's cheaper."

18th of November: Went out to Gardenworld. Bought a good ol' venus flytrap - for flytrapping.

19th - 22nd of November: Mostly boredom, interspersed with going out, Maple Story and FIFA08. What an exciting life.

23rd of November: Our triumphant return to The Castle on the Hill for Speech Night rehearsals. Well, for some of us. Those that turned up. And didn't sing their throats raw by the end. Went out to play pool. Won 1/5, in a team battle. I swear that Javi guy used aim hax against Orrin and I.

24th - 28th of November: Can't remember much happening. Might have gone out a few times, bummed around a bit. Folded some stars and half-made a jar. Looks something like this:



It probably shall be given to one who is deserving of such a mighty gift.

29th of November: Speech Day was pretty unamusing, in that I came in school uniform because that's what it said on the sheet. Along with five other people. So some idiot behind me (Shivesh I think, who is incidentally Rudra's friend) thought that this was a valid enough reason to grope my behind. Go figure. So I gave him the evil eye and made it clear to him that I didn't share his sparkling sense of humour/pastime/things that give me kicks. So he stopped. Singing was pretty atrocious. After that unsavoury incident, I travelled to Nando's MC with Meng the Taikonaut and Orrin. After being promised that "Nando's is really good" by (fill in the blanks) M_ _ g, we found out that it wasn't so good after all. We also found that Orrin is a chicken eating machine. Had to go home early to meet immigration lawyer. No, I'm not getting deported.

Speech Night was a blast. Sort of. Watched it with my homies for the first time since Year 9. So yeah. Patrick Low was a highlight. If John So were dead, I would swear that Patrick Low is him reincarnated. We sang so much better than at rehearsals. Year 12 song (No Such Thing - John Mayer) was a marked improvement. I still maintain that Nessun Dorma should have been the final song. Finlandia really doesn't make sense as a last song. Hardly anyone knew the lyrics, and its not very moving. And it doesn't help that we're not Finlandish. It was good all in all though. I think my family liked it.

30th November - 3rd December: Started and half finished my massive painting project.

Night of the 3rd of December: Valedictory Dinner at Caulfield Racecourse. Basically, dinner with friends, celebrating our past misdemeanours, successes and failures of our times at this fine school. Of friends made, and of good times spent. Pretty good food as well. Some people find it funny that we did it in school uniform. I say that it's a great idea. Obviously DLC disagrees with me, coming in casual the way he did. Although it was amusing watching Andy Van rapping, and finding out that Ludo has a sense of humour, there was still a sense of sadness that pervaded the occasion. A night to remember. For photos (more will be added later after I get them off people), have a look at my flickr page here.

4th of December: I awoke early, even with my hangover from excessive Coke consumption, to lead my sister to Mac.Robertson Girls' High School for her orientation day. I think I'll just stick with Macrob. Anyway, it was quite uneventful. Got to Flinders, followed Macrobians, and arrived at the school that looks like a...yeah, I won't say. I like life too much to throw it away like that. So met up with Orrin, went pooling, bowling, eating, and "shopping" (i.e. not buying anything at all - Smiggle rubber doesn't count). Then I met my sister back and Flinders and went home. And the ungrateful swine still reckons she doesn't know the way there.

5th - 6th of December: Continued and concluded paint project. The reason for the delay was the exhaustion of paint supply and different coloured paint being bought. It now looks something like this:



And my clothing afterwards:


7th - 8th of December: Very, very late sleepover 17th birthday party at Orrin's. Meng and Dom came along for the ride. So we went soccer, N64, soccer, N64 and table tennis. Was quite amusing. Gave Orrin a Torres jersey, seeing as it's his favourite person in the world. See below:

Quote of that day: "How big's your stick?" - Meng (not taken out of context at all).

Other projects undertaken between then and now: Cleaning of my room. Successful, as you can see from the picture below:



Cleaning out VCE stuff: still happening.

Buying Christmas stuff and just general stuff for relatives.

Receiving Christmas gifts: current tally is 1 Country Road bag, 1 Parker pen, 1 CK In 2 U perfume, and 1 Lego Batmobile. I didn't ask for any of these fantastic gifts.

Also found out my dog likes buckets:


Miscellaneous picture:


Today: Purchased Mr. Happy t-shirt (at long, long last, found one that wasn't overpriced and looked awesome, shall show you all in a later post), purchased a Nintendo DS (the phully cools) and some other stuff which i can't remember). So after waiting around the house for hours (well, if you count going out as waiting around the house for hours) for the "goods" for the DS to arrive literally on my doorstep, delivered by a person, I found them in my letterbox, where they had probably been for hours. XD.


I probably won't blog again until after I arrive in China (leaving on the night of the 14th (tomorrow now), arriving on 15th), when you can all follow my Asian adventures, full of photos and wordsmithing. If anyone needs anything from China, drop us a line here, on Facebook, or email me, and I'll see what I can do. See you when I'm in China.